Well-known international food industry commentator, Professor David Hughes, will return to Western Australia in October 2018 to provide some valuable insights into ever-changing global consumption trends.

The WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development will host speaking engagements for Professor Hughes on ‘Global food industry trends: what they mean for your business?’ at Busselton on 16 October 2018 and Wanneroo on 18 October 2018, as part of its Food Industry Innovation project.

Food Industry Innovation project manager Kim Antonio said the presentations would be an invaluable opportunity for premium food and beverage manufacturing businesses to hear first-hand global intelligence that could benefit their operations and growth.

“Professor Hughes will discuss significant, emerging trends, like packaging, health and wellbeing and environmental awareness and what they mean to the food and drink industry,” Mr Antonio said.

“He will also detail market opportunities for smaller-scale, niche suppliers and in the Asian ‘gifting’ market, which may be of interest to some WA food and beverage businesses.”

Other topics on the program include what it takes to produce a premium product for a global market, as well as who is driving disruption in the global retail market and what are the implications for WA suppliers.

The interactive presentations will be particularly relevant to food and beverage manufacturing businesses in peri-urban areas, the grainbelt and in the South West, where there are a large number of premium producers and processors.

The department’s WA Premium Food Centre manager, Jon Berry, said the talks were one of several Food Industry Innovation project initiatives to build the skills and capacity of local agribusinesses in the value-adding sector to help capture market opportunities.

“We’ve had a great response to several workshops, seminars and masterclasses run in 2018 to assist businesses in branding and marketing, consumer and market analysis, export logistics, e-commerce, information technology and business planning,” Mr Berry said.

“There are also plans to hold more workshops on marketing food and beverage products in a changing world in the non-metropolitan regions in the remainder of 2018 and in 2019.”

Register to attend Professor Hughes’ talks at either the City of Busselton on Tuesday, 16 October 2018 or the City of Wanneroo on Thursday, 18 October 2018. The presentations will commence at midday and conclude at 3.30pm.